CONFUCIANISM AND TAOISM

China

1. China stands alone among the world's great civilizations, havingdeveloped in almost total isolation from the rest of the world.

* Isolated by geography, at the extreme eastern end of the ancient Euro-Asian world, hemmed in by mountains and des- erts, lying across no trade routes, China developed by it- self.

2. The Chinese people have traditionally thought themselves to be thecenter of the universe (Chung-Kao, the Chinese name for China,means the kingdom in the middle).

3. The Chinese have regarded themselves as an island of culture in aof barbarity.

* Like the Romans, the Chinese have long understood the arts of large-sclae administration (beginning with a civil ser- vice selected on the basis of merit, Chinese bureaucrats kept the empire intact for two thousand years.

Three Major Religions

1. Three religions have played a major role in China's three thou-sand years of history.

a. They are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.

b. Confucianism and Taoism are indigenous to China----------both had been in existence for 500 years before the intro-duction of Buddhism from India.

2. An earlier religion (from which Confucianism and Taoism each grewout of) had existed in China for nearly 1,000 years.

a. Indigenous Chinese tradition had its impact on Buddhismmaking it more Chinese in character.

b. The influence and impact of Indian thought and religiousexperience, in turn, had an impact upon Confucianism andTaoism ---------------- resulting in Neo-Taoism andNeo-Confucianism (reformulations of the indigenous tradi-tion).

3. Confucianism and Taoism, in the Chinese mind, are chiao (teach-ings) which are not exclusively religious.

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a. The writings of the founders of Confucianism and Taoismhave been regarded as part of the cultural heritage ofthe Chinese.

b. Confucianism's sacred canon, the writings of Confucius andsecular documents predating Confucius make up the classi-cal Corpus of China.

1. For nearly 2,000 years the Confucian Canon wasthe basis of curriculumn in Chinese education.

2. Familiarity with the canon was one of the princi-ple requirements of the civil service examina-tions.

4. Confucianism and Taoism have been thought of as manifestation ofthe National Chinese Ethos not specifically as religious faithsinviting conversion, membership and personal commitement.

a. With the introduction of Buddhism at the beginning of theChristian Era, the notion arose of religion as an organiz-ed institution.

b. In response to Buddhism, Taosim evolved a priestly orderand a hieracrchy, temples and monastaries and a sacredcanon.

c. The imperial household and the Chinese ruling establish-ment were Confucian, and Confucianism became the philoso-phy of the administrative classes.

d. Both Confucianism and Taoism were, in origin, philosophi-cal systems which were devoid of any cult elements.

* religious aspects grew out of it and then became more insitutionalized.

The World of Divination

1. Chinese recorded history begins with the Shang Dynasty from the16th to 11th Centuries B.C.

a. The records of this period are oracle bones discoveredtoward the end of the 19th Century.

b. These bones were (of which some 100,000 fragments havebeen recovered) divination inquiries (petitions).

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c. These inquiries were engraved on animal bone and shelladdressed to spirits for guidance.

1. The diviner then applied heat to holes bored inthe bone and the resultant heat-cracks were inter-preted as being either an "auspicious or inauspi-cious" response from the spirits.

2. We see a society regulated in almost every respectof daily life by divination and governed by theconsideration of good or bad luck.

2. The powers consulted in divination were the spirits of thedeceased kings, the ti, and the spirits of the ancestors.

a. Deities of the hills and streams and other nature gods andtutelary spirits were worshipped.

b. Not only were the dead asked for guidance in matters ofconduct, but their manna (their inherent power) wasinvoked in ensuring the fertiliity of men and women, cropsand beasts.

The Ancient Religion

1. Animism (the worship of nature deities), fertility rites andcults, and in particular ancestor worship are a variety of formsthat recur in subsequent times.

2. The Shang Dynasty was replaced by the Chou Dynasty until 1027 B.C.------------- the Chou Royal House ruled as "priest kings" until771 B.C.

a. This period is regarded as a golden age by Confucius.

b. Certain of its documents were cited by him as ancient pre-cedents, and were included in the Confucian Canon--------many elements of the Chou royal religion thus passed intoConfucian orthodoxy.

3. Early Chinese monarchs were both priests and kings (their sov-ereignty in being invested by heaven with their power).

a. In the Chou belief, the highest deity was the SupremeAncester (Shang-ti), a term synonymous with T'ien(heaven).

b. Heaven holds the entire universe (the natural world and

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its inhabitants - the "known world" of the Chinese) in itshands, foreordains the change of seasons, orders the cycleof death and renewal, and ensures the fertility of men andwomen, crops, and beasts.

c. Heaven places the responsiblity for ordering the universein its regent upon earth, the Son of Heaven (T'ien Tzu).

1. This role the Chous claimed for themselves.

2. The ordering of the universe was a matter of beingritually acceptable (p'ei) to heaven, and, throughthe performance of rituals, sympathetically induc-ing the realities of the natural order and itssequence in the universe and among mankind.

The Role of the King

1. Heaven showed its displeasure by untimely weather or other super-natural signs such as thunderbolts, and by a failure of fertility.

2. The priestly functions of the kings consisted in sacrificing tothe dead kings and to Shang-ti, the most remote and therefore themost powerful of them.

3. He reported to God on the course of secular events, and engaged insuch mimic rites as ritual ploughing and sowing (in the case ofqueens, a ritual spinning of the silk cocoons from the mulberry)to ensure fertility and to begin the cycle of life and renewal ofthe year.

4. P'ei (being ritually acceptable to heaven) was the king's licenseof Sovereignty and provided the political power that bound hisvassals in allegiance to him.

a. The king was assisted in the proper performance of hisduties by priests and intoners.

b. They were experts in the forms of ritual, and importantamong their duties, were astronomical observations thatmade it possible to fix the calendar.

5. The semi-deified nature of the kingship:

a. The choice by heaven of the king as its son, gave the kingpolitical hold over his vassals who were in their turninvested with "charges" by him.

b. Under the king's charge (wang ming), the king's feudalunderlords held local sovereignty.

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c. Under the lord's charge (kung ming), granted authority tosub-vassals.

* an entire feudal pyramid was created that was held together by the will of heaven.

Royal Worship

1. Royal worship took place in the ancestral temple, the centralbuilding in the palace complex.

a. Facing south, the palace precints were approached throughthe south gate---------- it opened up into the greatcourt.

b. The north face of the great court was the shrine to theChou Ancestors.

c. To the rear, through two further gates, was the centercourt, on the north side was the residential palace.

2. Description of a typical ceremony:

a. The first day, before dawn the king was prepared by hischief ministers in his palace.

b. The king proceeded to the ancestral temple, and thefeudal lords (from a military campaign) appeared at thesouth gate ----------- they were then summoned to thegreat court where captives were presented.

c. The captives were sacrificed in the ancentral temple, andthe party proceeded to the center court where an accountof the campaign was given.

d. The king went from the center court to the temple tosacrifice to the royal ancestors.

e. On the following day, the meat and wine offered in sacri-fice were eaten in a feast given to the assembled vassals.

3. The rituals employed in such services are preserved in the earli-est section of the Book of Songs, an anthology of early Chinesepoetry.

a. These are hymns of the Chou kings and are also the firstliterary expression of Chinese relgious feeling.

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b. The hymns consist of invocations and confessions addressedto the royal ancestors, and recitals to the gods of deedsof valor.

c. Other pieces celebrate before the gods the presence ofvassals at the ceremonies.

1. There are songs of welcome addressed to thevassals.

2. There are songs of fealty addressed by the vassalsto the king.

With sately calm and reverent accord,The ministers and attending kinghtsRecord the virtues of their founding LordOur heavenly ministrant, the great King Wen.

O Lord, may you in your great majestyFind in measured act and formal wordPraise not displeasing from mere mortal men.

Majestic, never endingIs the Charge of Heaven.Your virtue descending,Oh, illustrious King Wen,Your servants on earth.We have only to receive your favor.May it be preserved by those who come after.

Our offeringsOf oxen, sheepWe humbly bring.May from these springHeaven's keepAnd the favor of the king.May we alwaysFear the wrath of HeavenSo to keep his favorAnd our ways even.

To bring peace to the land we mustFollow the precepts of King Wen, and trustTo his statutes; from afar he will watch and approve.

His robes of brightest silk,His cap encrustedWith precious stones,The wine so mellow and soft;He moves without sound

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In reverent modesty amongThe sacred tripods and the drinking horns;He moves from Hall to Threshold with measured pace,And for the aged brings at last the gift of grace.

4. The charges of the Chou kings and ritual hymns provided forConfucius the "documents of antiquity", ancient authority for hisown religious and political views.

* Many Chou religious beliefs became basic religious views for Confucius.

a. The idea of a supreme being (Shang-ti, God-on-high), andthe idea of a kingship being held at heaven's pleasure(the mandate of heaven)----------- and the idea thatheaven withdraws its mandate from the wicked and sanctionsthe overthrow of a dynasty.

b. The centrality of royal ancestors led to the centrality ofancestors in subsequent religous practice.

c. Reverence for the powerful dead and invoking their mana(a supernatural force or power which may be concentratedin objects or persons) for the sustenance of the clanbecame part of Chinese social mores and filial piety acentral Confucian teaching.

5. Confucius invested much of the early religious practice withmoral sanctions.

a. The Chou Era was a pre-moral age (as evidenced in humansacrifice).

b. Chou religious practice was not motivated by a moral viewof good and evil.

c. It was motivated by the ritual manipulation of powers toensure good luck and to avert bad luck and to invoke thecollective power of the departed dead.

Aristocratic Religion

1. In 771 B.C. the kings of western Chou moved their capital to theeast, and with this change came a decline in royal power andinfluence.

2. Real power passed to the princes of city states.

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a. Originally these princes were feudal vassals of theChou dynasty.

b. These rulers gradually asserted their independence andincreasingly took upon themselves kingly privileges.

* Among them were the priestly functions of the ancient kings.

3. Feudal princes attached their geneology to local cult heroes ofthe past.

a. Hou-chi, the Prince of Millet, became the putative(commonly regarded as such; reputed, supposed) ancestorof the Chi Clan, Yu the Great, the hero of the primevalFlood, was the putative ancestor of Szu.

b. Through their possession of the local altars and theirright to attend to the divinities of fertility, with acessto the mana of their ancestors, the prince of the citystates asserted political control over their subjects.

c. The city-states maintained archives of which much hassurvived.

d. The Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'un-Ch'iu) of Lu andcommentaries provide our principal source for the relig-ious ideas in this period.

1. They record matters of dynastic concern-marriagesand deaths of the princely house, treaties withother states, and ominous events (untimelyweather, the appearance of freaks and the like)and observations of eclipses and meteors.

2. These archives had the ritual purpose of placingon record for the ancestors matters of dynasticconcern.

Shamanism in the South

1. Eastern Chou sources are concerned with the religion of city stateprinces and the aristocratic classes.

* Very little is known of the popular religion of this period.

2. From the city-state of Ch'u which by the 4th Century B.C. dominat-ed the upper Yangtze Valley (and included what are now Anchwei,Honan, Hunan, Hupeh, and Szechuan.

a. A collection of shaman songs has survied as part of the

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Elegies of Ch'u.

* These are the Nine Songs.

b. The gods invoked are from the local cults of areas inCh'u, mountain and river goddesses and local heroes.

c. The shamans, either men or women, ritually washed, per-fumed and decked out in gorgeous dresses, sing and danceaccompanied by music in courtship ritual, inviting thegods to descend in erotic intercouse, and then lament thesadness at their departure.

With a faint flush I start to come out of the east,Shining down on my threshold, Fu-sang.As I urge my horses slowly forward,The night sky brightens, and day has come.I ride a dragon car and chariot on the thunder,With cloud-banners fluttering upon the wind.I heave a long sigh as I start the ascent,Reclunctant to leave, and looking back longingly;For the beauty and the music are so enchantingThe beholder, delighted, forgets that he must go.Tighten the zither's strings and smite them in unison!Strike the bells until the bell-stand rocks!Let the flutes sound! Blow the pan-pipes!See, the priestesses, how skilled and lovely!Whirling and dipping like birds in flight!Unfolding the words in time to the dancing,Pitch and beat all in perfect accord!The spirits, descending,darken the sun.In my cloud-coat and my skirt of the rainbow,Grasping my bow I soar high up in the sky;I aim my long arrow and shoot the Wolf of Heaven;I seize the Dipper to ladle cinnamon wine.Then holding my reins I plunge down to my setting,On my gloomy night journey back to the east.

3. The Shamanistic Cult which was not confined just to the South butwidespread as the popular religion throughout the city-states.

4. Shamans played the role of exorcists, prophets, fortune tellersand interpreters of dreams.

* They were also medicine-men, the healers of diseases.

5. References to them in the literature of the period suggest thatthey were everywhere.

a. New colonization measures: in the 1st Century B.C. state

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that the new colonists are to be provided with "doctorsand shamans, to tend them in sickness and to continuetheir sacrifices."

* The suggestion is that the shaman was a customary member of village society.

b. The phrase "shaman family" hints that the calling of theShaman was hereditary.

6. With the rise of Confucianism, a growing prejudice against Shaman-ism emerges in China.

The Age of the Philosophers

1. The roots of both religious Confucianism and Taoism were laidduring the Age of Philosophy.

a. From the 6th to 3rd Centuries B.C. in the city states ofthe north-central plain, China enjoyed the flowering andproliferation of philosophy.

b. Philosophers traveled from one court to another seeking aprince who would "put their way into practice".

c. The father of Chinese history, Szu-ma Ch'ien (145-90 B.C.)described them as the "Hundred Schools".----------------gradually emerged the schools of Confucianism and Taoism.

2. Power within the city states passed from princes to oligarchs,groups of powerful nobles.

a. From a religious point of view, this raised the problem ofthe sanction of heaven for political power, and the rightsof religious authority.

b. Social and Economic Change in China: 7th Century B.C.

1. Iron was introduced and coins were minted--------merchants organized and negotiated terms of statusand operation with princes.

2. An agrarian economy of self-sufficient communitieswas transformed into specialized production------leading to disruption in social equilibrium andpolitical unrest.

c. Social mobility for the aristocracy also increased.

1. Some aristoacrats become mercenaries and attachedthemselves as clients to patrons.

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2. Others became merchants and engaged in interstatecommerce (Shang is the word for commerce).

3. Others hired themselves out as tutors to the sonsof the nobility or opened schools.

They called themselves the Ju (the gentle or theyielding).

3. By the 4th Century B.C., the philosopher was a familar figure atcourt with rulers staging debates where rival theories were argu-ed and aired.

4. The Philosophical Age was ushered in during a period of change andinnovation.

a. The problem was thought to be political: how to restoreorder and equilibrium to the city states.

b. The schools of the Philosophical Age which concerns thestudy of religion are Confucius and his successors.

Confucius

1. Confucianism is the earliest of the hundred Schools, and itsfounder, Confucius, was China's first philosopher.

2. He was born in 551 B.C. in the city state of Lu, and died in579 B.C.

a. His name is a Latin form of the Chinese K'ung Fu-tzu(Master Kung).

b. As tutor to the sons of the city-state aristocray, hetaught.

1. The arts of city-state life.

2. The study of the Book of Documents, a collectionof archives concerned with Western Chou.

3. The Book of Songs that contained the ritual hymnsof the early Chou kings.

3. Confucius instilled in his pupils the system of the Chou royal re-ligion.

4. It was the restoration of the values and practices of this agethat Confucius saw as the political answer to the problems of thecity states.

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a. Confucius appealed to the texts of the Book of Songs andthe Book of Documents as his authority. ----------------his method was scriptural.

b. As a political theorist his approach was conservative----his program was one of the restoration of an earliertradition.

An Ethical and Moral System

1. By interpreting the archaic language of these documents (asscripture) into a contemporary sense -------- he evolved anethical and moral system.

* This was done from writings that are auguristic dominated by a belief in magic.

2. Te, the magical force, the mana of antiquity became virtue in anethical moral sense.

a. The power that mana exerts became the force of examplewhich converts the "good" into an irresistable force.

b. The Prince of the ancient texts, chun-tzu, becomes forConfucius what a gentleman should ideally be.

c. Jen, the attributes of members of the tribe in good stand-ing, becomes for Confucius an almost transcendental quali-ty of goodness ------------- attained only by the sagesof antiquity.

3. Society was transformed from a concern with good and bad luck toa concern with right and wrong.

The Analects

1. The Analects (Lun-yu) are twenty books containing the teaching ofConfucius.

a. Each book consists of a collection of sentences or para-graph sayings of the master recorded by his pupils.

b. The Analects thus form part of the Confucian sacred canon.

2. The Prince should follow the "Way of the Former Kings"----------in the Confucian view, they ruled and behaved as heaven decreed.

a. They ruled because they were Jen, inherent goodness.ie. unselfishness, deference toward others, courtesy, andloyalty to family.

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b. Jen: (to Confucius) ----------- was a mystical entity -the essential quality of sainthood.

Virtue

1. Te (virtue) is the power by which sainthood is achieved.

a. Virtue, not as opposed to vice, but rather as the inherentvirtue ------------- the power of efficacy of something.

b. It transcends physical force and coercion ----------------the good person exercises virtue and others turn to thegood.

c. The man who seeks to be jen by cultivating his te attainsthe princely ideal.

2. Chun-tzu (lit. a prince) is the princely ideal which becomes inConfucian teaching the embodiment of the ideals of human conduct.

a. The chun-tzu is governed in all things (his conduct) byli (ritual).

b. Li - the rites of the early religion - become an entirecode for gentlemanly conduct, so that to moral conduct isadded an appropriate outward manifestation.

3. Confucius's emphasis was with personal conduct and personal duty.

a. Service to god becomes meaningless if service to othersis neglected.

b. Core of his teaching: is the ethical and moral problemsof man's relationship to his fellow man.

Filial Piety

1. Hsiao (filial piety) originally meant piety to dead parents andancestors, and duties owed to them in the performance of sacri-fices.

2. To Confucius, hsiao meant serving living parents ----------------resulting in :

Five Relationships of Confucian Teaching:

a. The prince and subject.

b. Father and son.

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c. Older and younger brother.

d. Husband and Wife.

e. Friend with Friend.

3. Filial piety embraces those attitudes of respect for the seniorand a reciprocal attitude of love and affection on the senior'spart to the junior.

* After death ----------- it involves religious obligations in ceremonial worship.

Mencius

1. Tradition: after the death of Confucius in 479 B.C., his disciplesscattered (we are told there were 70) from whom several schools ofConfucianism arose.

* The most important figures were Mencius (an idealist) and Hsun Tzu (a realist).

2. Born a century after the death of Confucius --------------- hisChinese name was Meng K'o but was called Meng Tzu (Master Meng).(390-305 B.C.)

3. A member of the Aristocratic class seeking office to put his "Wayinto practice".

* After serving a brief term as minister in the state of Ch'i, he retired to private life teaching his way to his dedicated pupils.

4. The Works of Mencius: the surviving text of his works gathered byhis students.

a. Arranged in short sentence - or paragraph sayings---------the paragraphs are extended and the treatment is muchfuller than that of Confucius.

b. The Works of Mencius like the Analects form part of theConfucian Sacred Canon.

c. Purpose: to transmit the wisdom of the ancients withoutcreating anything new.

5. Attitude Toward History

a. For Confucius, "the way of the former kings" was the early

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Chou emperors (11th and 10th Centuries).-----------------the earlier Shang and Hsia Dynasties were barely mention-ed.

b. Yao, Shun and Yu the Great: heroes of this earlier periodbecome more important to Mencius.

1. The era of Yao and Shun was a period of primodialperfection.

2. Mencius's ideas toward sainthood had become moresecular ------------ any man could become Yaoor Shun.

c. Jen, almost unattainable under Confucius, is now associat-ed with yi (originally meaning "immortal right") whichbecomes justice for Mencius.

* Both social and economic justice --------------------- humanity and justice become the central points of Mencian teaching.

6. Humanity and Justice

a. Mencius introduces a concern for the common people, themin in contrast to jen (the aristocracy).

b. Heaven is the guardian of the common people and heavenshows its displeasure when they suffer.

1. Emphasis on the well being of the common people asthe basis of the ruler's virtue is a major contri-bution of the Mencian Way.

2. For the prince who has these qualities, the goalsof true kingship are realized.

c. Jen engenders "power" (te), a prestige and moral persua-siveness which is the opposite of pa (physical force andcoercion).

d. Wang (true kingship) and pa (rule by force) are thusopposed ------------- To rule by superior virtue ratherthan by force becomes an influential element in Confucianpolitical thinking.

7. Human Beings and Their Fate

a. Hsing (human nature) was to Mencius innately good whichwas attested by the universality of a sense of kingship

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and of right and wrong.

* Importance: this is the unique difference between humans and other living creatures.

b. Hsing can be mutilated and atrophy and disappear if notnurtured properly.

c. Nurturing the hsing consists in guarding the mind (ts'unhsin), for the mind is the center of humanity and justice.

1. It is the hsing (nature) and hsin (mind) that de-termine what we are.

2. Ming (fate) is ordained by heaven and determinesour lot in life.

3. The realization of innate goodness can only comefrom self-cultivation and self-knowledge.

Hsun Tzu

1. ca. 321-238 B.C.: the third member in the trinity of foundingfathers of Confucianism.

a. Lived toward the end of the Age of Philosophy -----------enabling him to defend Confucianism in the full knowledgeof competing philosophies.

b. Hsun Tzu presented Confucianism in a way that made hispresentation the most complete and well ordered philosophyof its age.

2. He attacks Mencius for his idealistic tendancies in appealing toantiquity of the legendary mythic Yao and Shun.

a. Like Confucius --------- Hsun Tzu saw antiquity as theperiod of the Chou Kings.

b. Importance: This placed authority on the firm ground ofhistorical documentation rather than on myth and legend.

3. To Hsun Tzu ---------- Heaven became impersonal, it is natureand the natural process.

4. Hsun Tzu - viewed human nature as basically evil.

a. He held the belief that through education and trainingone can become good.

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b. Education and training from the study of classical textscan be examples of how one can attain moral understandingand insight when the mind is properly employed.

c. Hsun Tzu insisted that the end process of education andthe proper function of the educated man was to govern.

5. The Human Mind: the Center of the Universe.

a. Since moral order and human perfection begins in the mind,the human mind becomes the center of the universe.

1. This attitude led Hsun Tzu to a humanistic,rationalistic view of religion.

2. Certain religious pratices he codemned as super-stition. ie. praying for rain, exorcising sick-ness, and reading person's fortune in the face.

3. Other forms of divination were allowed providedthat interpretations were made in the light ofhuman reason.

4. He denied the existence of harmful spirits andghosts ------------- to Hsun Tzu the spirits ofthe ancestors and the powers of nature became amanifestation of moral excellence.

b. The Concept of Li (ritual - the rites of the earlier re-ligion).

1. For Confucius it became a code of human conduct.

2. Hsun Tzu - provided a new and rational justifica-tion for li as it plays a part in one's life.

ie. observing the appropriate jestures, wearingthe proper dress, maintaining the proper manner(demeanor).

3. Purpose: to restrain the desires and rectify theevil that was innate in man.

c. The views of Mencius eventually became orthodox in Confu-cianism diminishing the influence of Hsuan Tzu.

* Importance: his emphasis on the virtues of education, and the duty of the scholar to govern became a central view of Confucianism.

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Utilitarians and Hedonists

1. Mencius complained that the world had succumbed to the teachingsof Yang Chu and Mo Tzu.* Rival Philosophies: the utilitarians of Mo Zu and the hedonists of Yang Chu.

2. Mo Tzu (ca. 479-381 B.C.)

a. Mohism: excercized a great deal of influence during theAge of Philosophers.

b. Mo Tzu had little use for authority or antiquity ---------believing that problems of society could only be attackedby rejecting authority and establishing a new societybased on reason.

3. Existence of the Divine (a deity):

a. Deity has a purpose, and a will which are conceived inlove and compassion.

b. Order is the ultimate manifestation of the divine com-passion ------------ the secret of the successful princelies in inquiring into the causes of disorder (for onlythen can he cure evil).

c. All are equal in the eyes of Heaven, and heaven manifestsits love upon all regardless of person.

* therefore it follows that people should love one another without discrimination and with equity.

4. Mencius thought the ideal that people should love each otherequally without regard to priorities of affection to family andprince as subversive of life itself.

5. Mo Tzu believed that there should be a consensus of the commongood and the consensus would be for universal love.

6. The consensus of the common good ------------ led Mo Tzu to histwo political axioms.

a. The Common Weal (prosperity or happiness; wealth or rich-es; body politic or state)

Mohist Meaning: the greatest benefit to the greatest num-ber.

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b. The Common Accord: the theory that the policy producingthe greatest benefit must be agreed to by all.

c. It followed that only the most able, without regard tosocial status, were fit servants of the commonwealth andto them should go its highest honors and rewards.

7. The highest moral act for the individual was in serving and makingsacrifices for others.

a. Mohists established an ascetic monastic order similar tothat of the Christian West.

b. They saw war as the very antithesis of universal love----thus they opposed aggression of any kind.

c. The Mohist argued that war itself was evil---------------yet, this did not stop them from arguing that the greatestgood might be in fighting against aggression.

8. Yang Chu, the Epicurean (the second of Mencius's rivals) arguedthat the city state was beyond recovery (redemption).

a. People's concern should be for themselves avoiding in-volvement with their fellows.

b. The emphasis was on individualism thinking it more impor-tant to save a single life.

Philosophical Taoism

1. Confucianism and Mohism were "activist" philosophies concernedwith the governments of the city states and social morality.

2. Philosophical activities of a quite different kind were takingplace in the countryside (the outside society).ie. the Quietists

a. They sought self-awareness and self-cultivation in thetranscendatal through yogic practices.

b. The unchanging Oneness underlying a world of change, whichat the same time gave both "impetus and motion" to life.* This they called tao.

3. All philosophers in ancient China spoke of their tao (their way)------------ the Quietists spoke of Tao-ness itself.

a. From their speculation emerged the religion of Taoism----an aspect of Chinese religious life we might think of asmystical.

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b. Its origin is closer to the popular religion of antiquity----------- for it sought access to knowledge through atrance-state of the shaman rather than in the documents ofantiquity.

4. The Core of the Taoist Scriptures

a. The Chuang Tzu and the Lieh Tzu are Taoist texts that havesurvived from the Age of Philosophers.

b. The Tao Te Ching appeared toward the end of this period----------- all three form the core (and are the earli-est) of the Taoist Canon.

c. Taoist Tradition: the Tao Te Ching is attributed to LaoTzu who is doubted as a historical figure as well asLieh Tzu.

1. Chuang Tzu (ca. 369-286 B.C.) is a historicalfigure who was a contemporary of Mencius.

2. However, both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are consider-ed to be the putative founders and patriarchs ofreligious Taoism.

d. In their different aspects, the Chuang Tzu, the Lieh Tzu,and Tao Te Ching represent different branches of Taoistthought.

* Yet, there are certain fundamentals that are common to all.

e. Chuang Tzu in the form of parables and imaginary dialoguesdescribes a form of knowledge known only to the adept.

1. It, the "greatest knowledge" (vision of themystic), is gained in a trance, a state in which"I lose me".

2. Heaven and Earth came into being with me together,and all things are one with me.

3. All things are relative, all opposites blend, allcontrasts are harmonized -------- the One is Tao.

* Tao can do everything by doing nothing.

4. Te (the virtue or morality of the Confucians) is,for the Taoist, the tao inherent in everything.

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5. Tao (the way) and te (its power) are fundamentalconceptions of philosophical Taoism.

f. Any human interference is viewed as damaging.

g. The adept opposes insitutions, moral laws, and governmentas obstructing the free-play of tao and the working of te.

h. The best way to govern is not to govern ----------------happiness is achieved by letting everything alone (ie. byallowing tao - free play.)

i. Death is just an aspect of existence, as life is (thechanging of one form of existence for another).

* Chuang Tzu says, "Life and death are one, right and wrong are the same." ------------ it is this that frees man from his handicaps.

Other Philosophical Schools

1. The Cosmologists: in the early part of the 3rd Century B.C. specu-lation began about a theory of the universe as an ordered wholeand about the laws that govern it.

2. Tsou Yen and his school (cosmologists) affected the course ofphilosophical development.

3. Tsou Yen said there was a cycle of five elements: earth, wood,metal, fire, and water.

a. Each element in turn conquers its predecessor in recurringcycles ----------- each governs a period of history.

b. Each element, in its rise and decay, governs the naturalworld, so that both natural and human events are predict-able.

c. Tsou Yen's followers are known as the Yin-Yang Schools.

4. The Yin (the dark, the female, the weak).

The Yang (the light, the male, the strong).

a. They are presented as two cosmic principles through whoseinteraction all phenomena of the universal are produced.

b. By the incorporation of yin-yang dualsim in the I Ching(Book of Changes), it entered Confucian Orthodoxy.

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c. It also entered popular religion through Taoism and theirsymbols became a common part of Chinese art.

5. The School of Law

a. Law should replace morality ------------ it came fromthe teachings of the Lord Shang in the state of Ch'in.

b. Ch'in at the end of the Age of Philosophers conquered allof China and united it into a nation state under anemperor.

c. It (the concept of law) rejected all appeals to tradition,reliance on supernatural sanctions or guidance.

* Legalism was eventually discredited as a philosophy be- cause of the harshness of its enforcement.

Religion under the Ch'in and Han Dynasties

1. The Age of Philosophy ended with the collapse of city states andthe establishment of imperial rule under the Ch'in.

2. China was united for the first time in a half millenium.

a. Under a tolatitarianism inspired by Legalism, the Ch'inemperors subjugated the people and created a unifiednation state.

b. These rulers also sought to demonstrate that their powerextended to their altars and gods that the people wor-shipped.

c. The first emperor toured his empire, ascending sacredmountains, visiting shrines, and making appropriatesacrifices to local deities asserting his sovereigntyover not only men but also the gods of the land.

3. To symbolize both his temporal and religious power, the emperortook the title: Ch'in Shih Huang-ti.

a. Ch'in is the name of the ruling house.

b. Shih signifies the "first" of his line.

c. ti was the term by which the god-king of antiquity wascalled.

d. hunag meaning illustrous suggests that he was the most -illustrious among the Ti.

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4. Under the advice of Legalist ministers, the emperor ordered theburning of books in a hope of destroying the teachings of theHundred Schools.

a. The first emperor consulted both shamans and magicianshoping to gain immortality.

b. This brought many elements of the popular religion intheir original varieties to court.

5. The Han Dynasty (202 B.C. to A.D. 220):

a. It inherited the structure, the institutions and the unityof the Ch'in.

b. It rejected the harshness of Ch'in laws and Legalism withits intolerance.

c. The Han Dynasty brought to China a rich period of intel-lectual and cultural development.

1. The Chinese still like to call themselves "men ofHan".

2. During this period Confucianism was established asthe state religion.

3. Taoism also became a popular religion, and towardthe end of the Han period ------------ Buddhismwas introduced into China.

The Triumph of Confucianism

1. The Ch'in came to power as a result of military conquest, and theHan succeeded the Ch'in through an armed uprising.

a. Both dynasties were confronted with the problem of religi-ous sanctions that legitimized kingship in the Chinesemind.

b. Ssu-ma Ch'ien (father of Chinese history) writing in thereign of Emperor Wu (r. 140-87 B.C.) said that the mandateof heaven requires that a ruler be fit to perform thefeng and shan sacrifices.

2. The search for the formula of feng and shan, led to an explorationof the extent of religious belief over the entire empire.

a. It was in the conflicting advice given to the early HanEmperors on the rites, ceremonies, and the sacrificial

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duties of the kingship that led to Confucian ascendancy.

b. Under Emperor Hsuan (r. 73-49 B.C.), a council of theempire's Confucian authorities was summoned and spentthree years discussing the interpretation of ConfucianClassics.

c. 51 B.C.: the emperor ratified their decisions.

* An official interpretation of the Confucian Classics which became authoritative in government.

1. Confucianism proscribed under the Ch'in and asmall local movement at the beginning of Han-----became sate and court orthodoxy.

2. Proficiency in Confucian Classics became the basisfor selection for state service.

* Its religious beliefs and ritual became the official religion of the royal house.

Need For Personal Gods

1. People still sought relationships with gods and spirits of apersonal and individual kind.

a. There was also the belief that through meditation onecould be provided with personal intercession with thegods.

b. The official religion offered no consolation for one'sfate after death.

2. It was the belief that at death, a person's several souls, sepa-rate and the body disintegrates.

a. Shamans, sorcerers, and magicians claimed to be able torecall the wondering souls of the dead and reintegratethem into an immortal body.

b. Even with the strong disapproval of the Confucian elitethis attitude persisted.

3. The Yellow Heaven

a. Toward the end of the Han Dynasty a group practicingalchemy and healing claimed that the "blue heaven" wouldbe replaced by the "yellow heaven" as the presiding powerof the universe.

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b. Prophesy: in the year A.D. 184, a new and revolutionaryera would usher in a millenium of universal peace.

1. It was a period of political unrest--------------the prophesy became a rallying point for a peasantrevolt.

2. The rebels wore a yellow-colored kerchief on theirheads to associate themselves with the yellowheaven ---------- it became known as the Revoltof the Yellow Turbans.

c. The movement was Taoist led, its ideology was Taoist in-spired and sought the formation of a Taoist State.

4. Taoist History: Chang Liang who served the first Han emperor be-came a student of Taoism and tried to gain immortality in vain.

a. Seven Generations later, a descendant, Chang Ling wrotea commentary on Taoism, and gatherred a group of disciplesreputed to be (ca. 10,000 men).

b. The Taoist Church was divided into two regional groups.

1. East: under the direction of Chang Chueh and histwo brothers (the Three Chang).

2. West: under the direction of Changs descended fromChang Ling.

c. During the Yellow Turban Revolt

1. The Eastern Church was said to have had the alle-giance of eight provinces (2/3 of the Han Empire).

2. Hierarchial Organization: divided into 36 pro-vinces.

a. At the head were the three Chang Brothers---- General and Lord of Heaven, General and Lord of Earth, and General and Lord of Man.

b. Under them the larger districts were in the charge of a Great Adept, the smaller districts of a Lesser Adept.

3. A similar regional organizational structure exist-ed in the Western Church under Chang Heng andChang Lu.

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* Religious hierarchy extended down to the indivi- dual community.

5. Rites and Services

a. Rites and services were developed for the atonement forsins, and for the expiation of sickness (thought to becaused by sin).

1. Priests would recite incantations over water andgive it to the pentitent to drink------------ ifit failed it was attributed to lack of faith.

2. Western Church: one would pay five pecks of riceas redemption money (sins were written down andconfessions were addressed to Heaven, Earth, orWater).

b. The Taoist religion at the end of the Han Dynasty was farremoved from the School of Mysticism of the 3rd and 4thCenturies B.C.

c. Taoism had become a religion of salvation with an organiz-ed Church structure offering a way of salvation.

6. Avoidance of Death

a. The true initiate sought to avoid death and to pass to theland of the immortals directly.

b. At Creation: the nine vapors were mixed with chaos-------the purest forming heaven and the coarsest forming earth.

c. The Human Body is made up of the coarser elements havingbeen endowed with life when the primodial vapor had enter-ed the body at birth.

1. The primodial vapor joins with the essence andthis forms the spirit, the principle of Life.

2. At death, vapor and essence separate which mustbe avoided if immortality is to be achieved.

* the body must not disintegrate.

d. The Principal Groups of Techniques ---------------------to achieve immortality.

1. Nourishing the life principle.

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2. Nourishing the spirit.

3. Preserving the One intact.

e. Consumption of Cereals was considered to be one of thecauses of death (ie. because their vapors nourish evilspirits in the body).

1. These evil spirits reside in the brain, heart, andstomach.

2. By diet, use of drugs, and breathing excercisesthese spirits could be repressed.

f. By Breathing one could force the essence to rise to thebrain and strengthen the union of vapor and essence.

g. By meditation ------------- one could enter into commu-nication with the good spirits within.

7. The Taoist Community

a. There were the greatest of all adepts who by taking theroad of Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu renounced personal immor-tality for the higher state identified with Tao itselfwhere no corporal containment was possible.

b. The shih (teacher) was in charge of the local community ofthe faithful.

1. Below him were community officials ranked in threegrades:

a. Pious and rich.

b. The rich.

c. Pious but poor.

2. They conducted intitiation rites for those who hadreached 18, and helped provide for the poor andsick.

c. Tao-min (Taoist People) were the ordinary members of thelocal community.

d. Three times a year the congregation met to celebrate thethree agents: Heaven, Earth, and Water which could eitherbring rewards or punishments.

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e. There were also five services a year for the departedfaithful.

Neo-Confucianism

1. Remained both the philosophy and religion of the educated upperclass.

2. The study of the Confucian Classics after its official recognitionduring the Han Dynasty continued.

3. Ma Jung and Cheng Hsuan (2nd Century A.D.) wrote commentaries----starting a tradition of scholarship to better understand and ex-pound the teachings of Confucius.

4. K'ung Ying-ta (7th Century A.D.) wrote further commentaries.

a. Purpose: to establish a unity within the Classical Confu-cian Canon.

b. Each book being thought of as a facet of a whole unifiedteaching.

5. The Confucian Elite, at court, continued to maintain a positionof opposition to both Taoism and Buddhism.

a. Buddhism was considered foreign and thus unpatriotic.

b. Beyond its social ethic, Confucianism did not meet thereligous needs of the people which both Taoism andBuddhism attempted to do.

6. Sung Dynasty (11th Century A.D.) a movement began under thepressure of Taoism and Buddhism to evolve explanations of human-kind and the Universe.

7. Chu Hsi (A.D. 1130 - 1200) became the Thomas Aquinas of Confucian-ism. (Neo Confucianism)

a. In every human mind there is the knowing faculty and ineverything there is reason.

b. The incompleteness of our knowledge is due to our insuffi-ciency in investigating the reason for it.

c. After sufficient labor and effort, one will come to thepoint where everything is known and understood (human andspiritual).

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8. With Confucianism as the basis of the state system of education,Taoism and Buddhism slowly declined.

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